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Cause-and-Effect

Today for the very first time, I started my blog without a title. There would be one, I believe, but not immediately. Last month, I sit in IELTS exam and got a good overall band 7.0, particularly a high in academic writing; that’s 7.5 band out of 9.

Writing a story for native English audiences while using Eglish as a second language, having an Arabic first name then living in a developing country, this all sounds blunder. But there are authors who have Arabic names say, Khalid Hosseini of Kite Runner. There is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the famous NBA player. I think I have chances to get some fame due to him as his last name is my first name.

When I was an undergraduate student, my friends told me that I am not good at expressing myself in the English language. I think it was a lie because they also bullied me. This was the reason that I decided to take IELTS exam back in 2009 but different choices were made which caused different effects; the cause-and-effect phenomena.

Last month, I overcame my fear of failure and now I am way more confident than ever before. With time we all make progress and this is what happened to me as well. However, to write a story or a novelette, I still need a lot of practice. I need to read some more science fiction books because this is the genre in which I want to write as well as find a local or an online teacher who could help me to improve.

I am still unable to title my anecdote; not sure why but it is not kind of anxiety. How about titling it Cause-And-Effect? I think it is a good title for this anecdote, and it suits my situation where I stand. Now, I want to stop writing and think about myself and the world around me understand the cause-and-effect of my choices, the future choices. As Stephen King says in his novel The Stand, “The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there… and still on your feet.” I am glad that I am still on my feet and this proves that one can manipulate the bad effects of regretful causes.

You are doing very well with your understanding of the English language, and it’s definitely getting stronger with every post you make. Being at YW will help with that, for sure. If ever you want more help, be sure to send out a beta request on the yw coffeehouse, I’m sure one of us would be happy to give you a read through before posting. 😊

I have often noticed that fluency in English is conflated with intelligence, which angers me quite a bit.
I think you are brave for wanting to write in a language that doesn’t come naturally to you. I wouldn’t be able to do that. Keep at it! 🙂

As an editor, I’ve often had to break writing down into things it’s easy to teach and things it’s hard to teach. The things that are the absolute hardest for me to teach a writer, you already have an excellent grasp of.

“When I was an undergraduate student, my friends told me that I am not good at expressing myself in the English language. I think it was a lie because they also bullied me.”

The ability to recognize how those details are related and then intuitively juxtapose them in the essay? That’s hard. The ability to sort through your entire life and identify what’s relevant to the theme you’re building even though the details are spread out over years? That’s hard.

The grammar stuff, the expression and word order? Those are the easy parts. Those sort themselves after a while, as you read more writing that’s similar to yours and learn to recognize the tricks used. As you make friends and get English-speaking beta readers and even editors who can help point out where idioms feel a little “off” or where a word isn’t quite the one you meant to use because of some nuance it’s picked up that isn’t immediately obvious when you see it in a dictionary or thesaurus.

There will of course be ups and downs. At some point I can almost promise you that your writing will become so *technically* good that you’ll lose some of the other good parts – your realness and rawness – and you’ll have to back up and rebalance to get the stories and essays you want. But you’ve got the right idea: read and write the things you love and believe in. The rest is just details.

The honesty in this post is so refreshing! well, English is just another language. May I suggest a book? ‘In Other words’ by Jhumpa Lahiri. She talks about writing a book in Italian, which is not her first language and the barriers she faces. I think you’ll relate to it. Please keep writing, you have a strong voice. The language will only get better.

I enjoy the feel and tone of your sentences; the way they flirt and tilt and digress on their way to conveying what may have been said as a native English speaker. There is a truth brought forth, I think, in communicating via a language (or mode) that is not one’s primary. Things are distilled, yet also poetic. Also, I love Stephen King and await more thoughts from you about him! 🙂

I often leave the title of my piece till last, and let it emerge from the work. I think you’ve chosen a rather perfect title given the content of this piece. You have a good sense of what elements make an engaging story, and the advantage of a rich culture of storytelling to draw from — I hope you make full use of both! I’m really looking forward to watching your growth and development here.